Timing
I measure both cycle times and shutter delay times, using a test system I designed
and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.)
Here are the numbers I collected for the DSC-P10:

NOTE: My qualitative characterizations of camera performance below (that is, "reasonably
fast," "about average," etc.) are meant to be relative to
other cameras of similar price and general capabilities. Thus, the same
shutter lag that's "very fast" for a low-end consumer camera might
be characterized as "quite slow" if I encountered it on a professional
model. The comments are also intended as only a quick reference: If performance
specs are critical for you, rely on the absolute numbers to compare cameras,
rather than my purely qualitative comments.

Sony DSC-P10 Timings

Operation

Time (secs)

Notes

Power On -> First shot

2.98

Startup screen appears and lens moves into position. About average.

Shutdown

3.14

Lens retracts. About average.

Play to Record, first shot

1.06

Time until first shot is captured. Pretty fast.

Record to play

0.81/5.64

Time to display a large/fine file after capture. First time is for camera not processing a photo, second time is that required to display just-captured image. Quite fast from quiescent state, somewhat slow for just-captured case.

Shutter lag, full autofocus

0.428/0.743

First number is wide angle, second is full telephoto. Much faster than average, most cameras I've tested are above 0.8 seconds, particularly at telephoto.

Shutter lag, manual preset focus

0.330

A bit faster than average. (Average for manually focused cameras is about 0.5 seconds.)

Shutter lag, prefocus

0.106

Delay after shutter button is half-pressed and held. Pretty fast.

Cycle Time, max/min resolution

1.37/1.70

First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for small/basic images. Very fast. Camera has a 9-shot buffer for large/fine files, essentially unlimited for small/basic ones. After nine large/fine files, shot to shot cycle time slows to about 2.3 seconds. (Still very fast.) (Interesting to note that cycle time is faster for large/fine than small/basic.)

Cycle Time, continuous mode, max/min resolution

0.50 (2.0 fps)

Cycle time in "burst three" mode is independent of file size, although as you'd expect from the name, you can only capture 3 frames before waiting for the Memory Stick to catch up. (Odd, given the 9-frame buffer I observed above.)

Overall, the Sony DSC-P10 is a surprisingly fast camera, and its shutter lag is much better than I'm accustomed to seeing. It starts up and shuts down quickly, has excellent shutter lag numbers, cycles between shots quickly, and even has a generous nine-frame (!) buffer. The only negative point is that its continuous-mode performance is limited to a maximum of three shots in sequence. This is especially baffling, given that it appears to have a full nine-frame buffer, based on my single-shot timing tests. No digital cameras really do very well with fast action, but the P10 will do much better than most.

PowerThe Sony DSC-P10 uses a single, custom lithium-ion battery pack for its power source, and shows pretty good power consumption for a compact digicam. Despite the generally good battery life though, I still strongly advise purchasing a second battery and packing it along on outings.

The table below shows the DSC-P10's power consumption in various modes, and approximate run times for each, based on a lithium-ion battery with a 2.8 Watt-Hour capacity:

Storage CapacityThe DSC-P10 stores its photos on Sony Memory Sticks, and a 16MB card is included with the camera. (I strongly recommend buying at least a 64MB stick, to give yourself extra space for extended outings.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored on the included 16MB card at each size/quality setting, along with the average images sizes and approximate compression ratios..

Image Capacity vs Resolution/Quality 16MB Memory Card

Fine

Normal

2,592 x 1,944

Images (Avg size)

6 2,560 KB

12 865 KB

Approx. Compression

6:1

11:1

2,048 x 1,536

Images (Avg size)

10 1,561 KB

18 865 KB

Approx. Compression

6:1

12:1

1,280 x 960

Images (Avg size)

25 634 KB

46 342 KB

Approx. Compression

6:1

11:1

640 x 480

Images (Avg size)

98 162 KB

246 65 KB

Approx. Compression

6:1

14:1

Download SpeedThe DSC-P10 connects to a host computer via a USB interface. Downloading
files to my Sony VAIO desktop (2.4 GHz Pentium IV, Windows XP), I clocked
it at 873 KBytes/second. This is *very* fast as USB-connected cameras go.
(Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast
ones run 600 KB/s or a little more.) - I suspect that the P10 has a USB 2.0
interface, although the manual makes no mention of it.